I feel like I grossly missed my goals this week. Do you ever have weeks like that? I feel like I’ve been playing catch up all month. All I can say is I’m ready for some normalcy and predictability. I haven’t had much of that lately.
Garden stuff has kept me busy…This little boy, Carver, was begging for some Blueberry Zucchini Cake. (Find the recipe HERE) So I made one…
I cut up a bunch of zucchini for the freezer too. I cut larger pieces to throw into stir fry and smaller pieces to throw into soups. I like to see the yellow of summer squash or the green of zucchini in my dishes over the winter.
I’ve been eating lots of zucchini too. Here is the Instant Pot loaded….I highly recommend this. See the sweet corn on the bottom-then a pan on top of that. The pan has zucchini and butter in it. Then I had a leftover pork chop and put that on top of it all. I used the manual setting for four minutes and I had a great supper.
Using the Instant Pot to warm up the pork chop was the best ever. I think warmed up pork chops end up really dry. Not in the Instant Pot. In fact, I think from not on I will purposely cook an extra one knowing I can warm it up as a leftover like this.
My week wasn’t all cooking. There was some sewing too…not the kind you expect from me though. This….Look at the picture.  If you guessed I was working with flags, you are right.
The local firemen are in charge of the flags in town. They put them up and take them down. There are about forty that go up for Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day.
The flags fray terribly. I was told that they often only last one year. Well after seeing a post on the blog about me mending flags, the firemen decided to see if I would hem them as they were new out of the package. The hope is that if the hem is going to come undone, my hem will come out and the original hem will still be left. This way, the flags will still look good.
I was okay with hemming them and trying it out. I’m hoping it works!! Getting another year out of the flags would be awesome.
Carver helped me work on these….I pulled the sewing machine down to the kitchen table and worked on them one day when Gannon and Carver were here.
Remember I was supposed to be working on this…
Well I wasn’t completely happy with the dying of the background fabric. When I dyed it, I lung it over a wooden rung. There ended up being a line in the fabric after it dried. I thought I was going to be okay with it, but I wasn’t.
I ended up redying it.
But didn’t get any further than that.
I did some mending…this is Rosie’s dog bed. The stitching came out. It was an easy fix. I just turned the hem over, pinned it down and sewed.
So did I ever get to the sewing machine to actually sew something that didn’t involve patching or mending?? YES! Not for much time, but yes, I did get to the sewing machine. My ‘A Blooming Bunch’ project is slowly making some progress.
This is one of the blocks. I can send you a few teasers but I can’t show you the whole project. So far, I love it.
If you look closely at the block it is made up of snowball blocks or pieces that have been “snowballed”. That means a triangle is on the corner making the unit look more circular than square. At the bottom of the corner is the piece for the center of the block. It is a classic “snowball” block.
I ended up taking some time to make a video that shows you how I make my snowball blocks. It’s just a short video. Some of you who subscribe to my Youtube channel likely already saw the video but I know that many of you don’t so I’m linking it here.
Kalissa was so sweet and helped me link the video clips together. I’m getting so I actually don’t mind doing videos. I hope you all don’t mind either!!
This week I also came up with another quilt design and ordered advance fabric from Moda for it. That fabric is due to arrive tomorrow. I can’t wait as my current project is on hold until that fabric comes in. The new quilt uses the same fabric line as the current quilt and I am missing a fabric from the first order but the second-order has the fabric in it so I’m stealing some fabric from the second for the first. AHH!! That was a confusing sentence to write. I hope it makes sense.
The first project HAS to get finished this week. HAS. I have longarming and pattern writing to complete for that project all before September 11th. Go Jo GO!!!
So that’s what I’m looking forward to this week-but I have a feeling my plans are going to be weigh laid. Wish me luck!!
I mend flags the same way. I also one time used a mid weight plastic and fold a piece over the end of the flag. Seems like I cut it about 1.5″ then folded it in half. Do have to use a Teflon foot. That fix lasted several years and was barely visible unless up close.
Should have added I use clear plastic.
What a great idea to add the extra hem on the flags, I will give that a try with our new flag. I like the idea of the pork chop in the instant pot, such a easy meal and lots of veggies, perfect. Thank you for the video on how to for snow ball blocks, so informative.
Good work on the video lesson! Don’t forget you were going to teach the alphabet making of letters sometime, too. Really enjoy your blog, Jo!
I use my IP for reheating too! Hubby grills pork steaks and they can get dry if reheated. Once I figured out how to reheat them in the IP, I have been buying the bigger packages, and we get two meals for it.
Good post. I watch video very good. Iam so happy.
That cake looks yummy! Thanks for the recipe link, Jo! I’ve never done a stacked meal in the instant pot. Incredible that the corn and zucchini cook in just FOUR minutes!! Best of luck with this week’s quilting goals.
Love your article! What Instapot do you use? I’ve never used one! Looks like a great idea. Is it like a slow cooker, crockpot type of thing?
Your new block with ‘elephant’ corners is cool too!
This is the Instant Pot I have. https://amzn.to/31nJ5ON I love it!! It can do 7 different things. I mainly use the pressure cooker feature.
That “Marcia Brady” fabric is really cute! I’m probably the right demographic for it–it brings back lots of childhood memories. I’ll have to put it on my wishlist.
If you feel like you missed goals give yourself a good telling off.
You achieved everything needful for family, friends, community, your sweet pup, your garden, your freezer, and your own nutrition. You even got some sewing in for your sanity.
Last week my achievement was 2 trips to the local hospital (first for a blood test, second for picking up my meds). Both times I went there by bus and walked home (3 miles). Plus I went for a walk with my eldest son. Well all that walking after months of shielding so not getting out and about had me wiped out.
So I got far less done than you did but I’ve learned to forgive myself. If any of your children came and told you they’d done what you did and then said they were disappointed they hadn’t done more would you berate them. No you would point out how much they achieved.
Now go to a mirror and tell yourself you did good and remind yourself Heavenly Father took breaks when making the world
Have you tried the diagonal seam tape by Cluck Cluck Sew? It’s the same concept with the 3 lines to align your fabric. I tried the Seams Sew Easy but the glue stuck to my machine. I tried Goo Gone to remove it and it messed up the plastic on the bed. Lesson learned.